Corning Glass Headquarters and the Little Joe Tower 🖼️
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Corning Glass Headquarters and the Little Joe Tower ...
The Little Joe Tower is an 185-to-187-foot chimney-like concrete tower located in the Gaffer District of downtown Corning, New York. Built in 1912 or 1913 by Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated), it stands as one of the area's most recognizable historical landmarks. Before this tower, precision glass thermometer tubing was stretched by hand horizontally. The tower modernized this by using a vertical pulley system to pull red-hot molten glass straight up into the air. Gravity helped create perfectly uniform tubing with a hollow core finer than a human hair. The structure gets its name from "Little Joe," a stenciled silhouette of a glassblower (or gaffer) painted near the top of the tower. The graphic has been a Corning trademark since 1880. As automatic horizontal drawing technology evolved in the mid-20th century, the tower's manual vertical method became obsolete. It was officially decommissioned in June 1973 and completely restored in 2015.
Taken on Thursday August 6, 2026 at Corning, NY.
More about Corning, NY...
Corning, New York, is a city in the Southern Tier known as the "Crystal City" for its glassmaking heritage, home to the headquarters of Corning Incorporated and attractions like the Corning Museum of Glass and the Rockwell Museum. Located on the Chemung River, its historic downtown, the Gaffer District, features shops, restaurants, and cultural venues, while the surrounding area offers access to Finger Lakes wineries and outdoor activities.
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